Anesthesia preparation time is not affected by the experience level of the resident involved during his/her first month of adult cardiac surgery

J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2011 Oct;25(5):766-9. doi: 10.1053/j.jvca.2011.05.001. Epub 2011 Jun 25.

Abstract

Objective: This study was designed to answer the question of whether the experience level of the resident on his/her first month of adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology has an impact on operating room efficiency in a large academic medical center. Traditionally, the resident's 1st month of cardiac anesthesia had been reserved for the clinical anesthesia (CA)-2 year of training. This study analyzed the impact on operating room efficiency of moving the 1st month of cardiac anesthesia into the CA-1 year. The authors hypothesized that there would be no difference in anesthesia preparation times (defined as the interval between "in-room" and "anesthesia-ready" times) between CA-1 and CA-2 residents on their 1st month of cardiac anesthesia.

Design: This study was retrospective and used an electronic anesthesia information management system database.

Setting: This study was conducted on care provided at a single 450-bed academic medical center.

Participants: This study included 12 residents in their 1st month of cardiac anesthesia.

Interventions: The anesthesia preparation time (defined as the interval between "in-room" and "anesthesia-ready" times) was measured for cases involving residents on their first month of cardiac anesthesia.

Measurements and main results: Anesthesia preparation times for 6 CA-1 resident months and 6 CA-2 resident months (100 adult cardiac procedures in total) were analyzed (49 for the CA-1 residents and 51 for the CA-2s). There were no differences in preparation time between CA-1 and CA-2 residents as a group (p = 0.8169). The CA-1 residents had an unadjusted mean (±standard error) of 51.1 ± 3.18 minutes, whereas the CA-2 residents' unadjusted mean was 50.2 ± 2.41 minutes. Adjusting for case mix (valves v coronary artery bypass graft surgery), the CA-1 mean was 49.1 ± 5.22 minutes, whereas the CA-2 mean was 49.1 ± 4.54 minutes.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that operating room efficiency as measured by the anesthesia preparation time may not be affected by the level of the resident on his/her 1st month of adult cardiac anesthesia.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Anesthesia*
  • Anesthesiology / education
  • Cardiac Surgical Procedures / methods*
  • Clinical Competence
  • Databases, Factual
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Internship and Residency
  • Male
  • Operating Rooms / organization & administration
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Thoracic Surgery / education*
  • Thoracic Surgery / organization & administration*